This is a photo of the morning light falling on the twin volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. Popocatepetl, on the left, is both active and 'male', while Ixtaccihuatl, his wife according to legend, is neither - if you look at the silhouette you can just about see the outline of a woman, laid down, hands folded across her chest.

Together they depict a sort of Mexican Romeo and Juliet, or many a modern marriage, perhaps. She lies sleeping (/dead), while he fumes.

Anyway! Back to today, which began both with the view shown above, and this too, below:

Fields in the early morning mist - it could be England, or anywhere - until you notice the spiky maguey cactuses, which mark the boundary lines, and it's definitely Mexico.

Today, we were visiting an NGO, Proyecto de Desarrollo Rural Integral, that works with farmers in a small municipality in the north of Tlaxcala state, to see if we might be able to work together to understand the social, economic and environmental implications of rejecting chemical pesticides and harvesting chapulines (grasshoppers) - just like everyone used to do before monoculture took over.

This is Panfilo Hernandez Ortiz, of Projecto de Desarrollo Rural Integral (the integrated rural development project), showing us a 'net'-ful of tiny chapulines that he has just swept through the edge of a polycultural maize-bean field in Vincente Guerrero.

Vincent Guerrero is a village of 573 inhabitants, named after a revolutionary general, where the morning serenity is broken by fireworks summoning people to church/work. A bit of a contrast from the jingles transmitted by loudspeaker in the Japanese countryside, but I was sold.

Speaking of Japan, check this out:

Sure, it may look like a badly-shot photo of a couple of Mexican farmers (and yes, it is) - but look closely! Anyone keen on cultigens (I'm sure I have a wide audience here. Well, I would if only the other 60% of the world had internet access) will see that maize is being intercropped with squash. This is a system that increases soil nitrogen and agricultural productivity, which first I learnt about here in Zimbabwe and South Africa. It's something that I tried to implement in Japan, with some (pretty minor) success.. But, of course, both crops originated here in Mexico.

Anyway, back to the grasshoppers. Here they are up close:

Still almost invisible, right?

The harvesting season in this region is Sept-Oct, depending on the weather, so they're not ready just yet.

For the time being, they'll be left to explore any food source they can find among the fields and their borders. Meanwhile, we'll try to figure out a way of addressing the research questions mentioned at the beginning of this post... and perhaps by the time autumn arrives, we'll have both a plentiful grasshopper harvest AND a strong protocol to celebrate!

(Actually, it was such a successful day that we began our celebrations early. Grasshoppers cannot be harvested in Vicente Guerrero yet, but Pulque - a milky, mucilaginous cactus beer that tastes about a hundred times better than this description - certainly can...)

According to written historical records, the Aztecs enjoyed a wide variety of edible insects, including honey ants, caterpillars and the eggs of aquatic beetles. These insects were considered the food of royalty, and many are still eaten as rare delicacies today, albeit mostly in rural areas. However, in the southern state of Oaxaca, one particular insect is found in abundance, and sold at affordable prices - Chapulines!

Chapulines is the plural of chapulin, which is the common Spanish term used for Sphenarium spp grasshoppers:

The photo above shows how chapulines are typically sold in the marketplace in Oaxaca city - in large quantities, in multiple flavours (typically garlic, chilli, and lemon) and in multiple sizes (small, medium and large are approximately 0.5cm, 1.5cm and 2.5cm in length). For 20MXN I was given a generous handful of medium-sized grasshoppers.

Another insect that can be found at some market stalls is the guano, also known as the 'Agave worm'. It is a Coleoptera (beetle/weevil) larva, and it is found in the Agave cactus, a plant of great cultural importance in Oaxaca. Unlike the abundant chapulines, these insects are comparatively rare and prices are high - for 5MXN we were given just two worms!

The Agave cactus is important in Oaxaca because it is used to make Mezcal, a distilled spirit with a smoky flavour. There are 59 species of Agave cactus, meaning that there are many different types of mezcal available to try, and entire bars dedicated to mescal alone. (My favourite was a very smoky flavoured 'pechuga' mezcal, although a quick google search suggests that this is either flavoured with raw chicken or triple distilled - I think I'll choose to believe the latter, & not ask any further questions...)

Finally, one other insect is particularly important to Oaxaca, although not as food. Like the 'gusano' worm, it lives on a cactus:

These tiny little white sacs in the photo above each contain a cochineal beetle. Each beetle is just 3mm in length, but it is thanks to this beetle that Oaxaca was an incredibly rich city in colonial times. This is because Oaxaca was able to export large quantities of the beetle's product, cochineal dye, to fabric manufacturers across the world. Cochineal-based dye is still used in common food products today.

Here is what happens if you crush a cochineal beetle between your fingers:

I was in Mexico to visit Aspire FG, a Canadian-based social enterprise working to develop high density insect breeding facilities in the Oaxaca region and elsewhere. As with many edible insects, demand currently outstrips supply, and Aspire FG are hoping to develop ways to increase supply of chapulines and make them more accessible to those who could benefit from them most.